it sounds like people are fairly cynical about Intel's latest announcement. There could be good reason for the decision to cut back the workforce and it may yet involve something other than lay offs. Furthermore, the decision may not impact US workers, in fact they may still be looking to invest in the United States. But the general response is no, they are looking to cut back their workfroce and do so by giving many workers the ax, with no additional pay to the rest, and a misguided product roadmap. We shall see.

Andrew Grove said (Intel's CEO 1979-1997): "While the story is unique to Intel, the lessons, I believe, are universal" ― Who is Intel's biggest Threat? see the answer here: http://anysilicon.com/intels-biggest-threat/

Intel has enough money in the Bank and under used Fabs. All they need now are better & cheaper designs that will bring back customers. So design not fab needs to be emphasized.

They need to embrace new end-uses, apps, architecture and low-power chip design rather than keep depending on just ever smaller & faster transistors. Internal organization is optimized to maintain the hold on legacy x86 products. Since that monopoly is going downhill, the organization needs to change too. Need to become more creative.

Intel came back to EE Times after close on Friday and said: "When we talk about reduction of the workforce there are a number of things that can happen. It could include redeployments, voluntary programs, retirements, and through attrition. All are options so it would be wrong to conclude this is a layoff. Our usual rate of attrition is close to 4 percent worldwide."